The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced Friday that it’s beginning an “orderly wind-down” of operations that will result in that the majority of staff positions being eliminated by September 30, 2025. A small transition team will remain in place until the start of the new year to finish the process.
The CPB blamed the passage of a federal rescissions package and the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for the shutdown.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement announcing the end of an operation spanning nearly six decades.
CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation approved by Congress in 1967. The outfit said it supports the operations of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations throughout the country. CPB also prides itself as “the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related online services.”
Harrison warned Thursday that Congress’ decision to withhold previously approved funds “will cause irreparable harm, especially to small and rural public media stations.”
A 2022 report by the Alliance of Rural Public Radio (ARPB) stated that public radio brings more than diverse cultural offerings to people in more remote parts of the country.
“During emergencies and national disasters, stations provide critical public safety information across broadcast and digital platforms, both through their news reporting and as part of federal, state, and local emergency warning systems,” the ARPB reported.
Congress’ appropriation bill includes a measure to provide $197 billion in discretionary funding, but cut out $1 billion in support for CPB.
The nonprofit newsroom New York Focus said New York Public Media will lose $57 million due to the cuts likely to impact 27 public media organizations including 18 radio and TV stations.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” according to Harrison said. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
National Public Radio says it depends on the federal government for about 1% of its operating costs. PBS gets 15% of its television revenue from the government.
Originally Published:
